The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street
by Ninja C
Summary: Lily decides to visit her grandmother over the summer, but new neighbours promise a more interesting holiday than she anticipated. Formerly titled Monroe. Lily/James.
1. Release the Hounds

**The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street**

**This is my first (still existing) linear fic. That means I have to think up a plot.**

…**Crap.**

**Disclaimer: Rowling's plots are sheer genius. And then there's me.**

Chapter 1: Release the Hounds

"America? Why've you moved to America?" Lily's voice, coated with incredulity, issued through the phone and into her grandmother's ear, across the Atlantic in a small town in Indiana.

"Lily, after your grandfather died, I decided it was time to move on to new things in life," Grandma Petunia soothed, wishing she had been able to tell her young granddaughter the news before she went back to school after the winter holidays.

"But I was looking forward to visiting you now that school's out!" Lily cried, noticing the whiny quality of her own voice and deciding she didn't care.

"You can come and visit me with the others if you'd like," Grandma offered.

"The others? You mean the cousins are going to be there? Why do I never hear these things?" she mused to herself.

"I was going to tell you the last day of the holidays, but when I woke up, you'd already vanished, back to your school," Grandma explained. "Oh, Lily, I'm so sorry. We ordered you a ticket anyway, if you and Petunia would like to come. We'd love to have you."

Disregarding the fact that her grandmother kept saying "we", Lily grimaced. "Petty's not going to be… available, Gran," she explained. "She's going off with her fiancé, that horrid Dursley, for the summer."

"Oh, where will they be going?" Grandma inquired, always up for news of any of her beloved granddaughters.

"Dunno. She never told _me._ She hates me."

"Now, Lily," Grandma chided. "You'll soon find out that not everything in life is about the superficial things, though it may take your sister a bit longer to discover it herself. Now, would you like to accompany the cousins to my place? Plane's leaving tomorrow."

Lily deliberated for a moment. She'd be leaving her mother and father behind, but what with the poor grades and bad relationships from the past year at Hogwarts, it'd do her good to get away.

"Sure, Gran," she agreed. "I'll see you tomorrow."

**If this first chapter is any indication, these chapters might be rather short. I'll try to make them frequent, though.**

**Off to actually develop a plot for once.**


	2. Family Ties

**The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street**

**Let's save the really goofy A/Ns for once we've gotten to know each other a bit better, shall we?**

**Disclaimer: Lucky Jo hasn't had to do a research paper in decades. Sucks to me.**

Chapter 2: Family Ties

_Ding-dong._

Lily's unkempt head made an appearance above her white comforter for the first time that morning. The sunlight bounced off the bright fabric and refracted straight into her eyes, causing her to yelp and dive back under the covers.

Voices floated up the stairs, louder than she had expected. Her mum's stood out to Lily, as she always heard it, and so did a shrill one that had to be her cousin Milly. But there were many, _many_ more besides.

Eyes wide, Lily snatched the blankets off her bed and wrapped them about herself as she dashed down the stairs. Finding no one in the front hallway, she crossed to the living room.

"Lil-EEEEEE!"

Lily stood with her mouth agape, aghast at what she was seeing.

"Well, at least say hello, wallflower," Mum instructed, and she finally came to her senses, waving at Aunts Rosetta, Primrose, Violet, Dahlia, and Linnea, along with Cousins Cordelia, Diana, Fern, Milly, Amy, Tabitha, Geraldine, Ivy, Naomi, Almeda, Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine, Lydia, Penelope, Letty, and an unidentified baby.

"The female streak is still unbroken, I see," Lily commented, her eyes glued to the infant in Aunt Dahlia's arms.

"Yes, this is Julianne - " Aunt D started to say, but a car horn honked from outside, and Lily's mother began to shoo her out of the living room.

"Go on, get your things! Your plane's leaving soon!"

"I'll go with you," Cordelia, Lily's oldest cousin, offered.

"Make sure Alice gets here, Mum," Lily called as Cordelia ushered her out. Before hanging up with her grandmother the previous night, she had ensured that Petunia's unclaimed ticket could be taken by her pureblooded best friend.

Lily detoured to the kitchen for a strip of bacon before ascending the stairs to her room, but just as she was reaching for the plate, a head appeared in the window.

"Lily!"

Lily dropped the bacon in surprise, reminded herself that she was not, in fact, being yelled at for taking a piece of perfectly free bacon, and whirled to face the window.

"Potter?"

Feeling suddenly self-conscious, Lily wrapped her blanket tighter around her oversized shirt. Cordelia grinned impishly at her, and Lily made a disparaging face in return.

"Who's this?" Cordy asked, ignoring Lily's death-look.

Lily quickly stepped away from the window. "No one," she said, just as Potter answered, "Her boyfriend."

"What?" Lily shrieked. Without waiting for an answer, she slammed the window shut, only nearly missing the impish boy's hands.

"Oi!" Potter pried the window back open again.

"What do you _want, _Potter?" Lily asked, incredulous at this boy's perseverance.

"I came by to tell you that I'm leaving for the summer," Potter drawled, looking over his nails. "Don't get too emotional on me. I know how you do care about me so."

"Good, then," Lily replied in relief, "because I'll be gone all summer too!" Without another word, she slammed the window shut again, this time locking it definitively. Potter's expression changed to one of confusion, and his hands pressed against the glass like he was a mime, but Lily simply snatched her bacon and sprinted up the stairs.

Grateful that she had packed her bags the night before, Lily changed out of her pajamas and handed a suitcase to Cordelia. She was about to follow her back down the stairs when she realised something with horror.

Wrenching the window open, Lily thrust her head out and called down the road, "How do you know where I _live?_" to the quickly disappearing black speck down the road. Potter appeared not to hear her, so Lily slid down from the window and back into the hall with a dissatisfied grunt.

"Okay, seriously, who was he?" Cordy inquired. Lily gave her eldest cousin a stony glance.

"You don't want to know." Before Cordy could continue, she changed the subject. "Love your hair." Indeed, the streaks of pink trailing through Cordy's curly blond head were stunning.

The aunties (five of them) ushered the nineteen girls out of the door and into three minivans, so Cordelia had no room or time to ask anything further. Hyacinth Evans waved from the door of the house as the cars pulled out from the driveway, speeding off to the airport.

"Bye, Mummy," Lily called lamely, not having had time to properly say goodbye.

"Lily, where's Tuney?" Geraldine called from the backseat, sandwiched in between Ivy and Milly.

"She won't be coming, Geri," Lily replied, to many disappointed groans from behind her. Aunt Violet snorted from the front seat.

"But I will!" a voice chirped from behind Lily, and she whirled around.

"Alice!" Lily squealed, attempting a strange manoeuvre to hug her best friend, but the baby strapped in on her lap squealed in protest. "I'm so glad you could take Petunia's place."

"Good riddance, I say," Auntie Vi grumbled. "That girl's gotten too self-absorbed for her own good."

"Mum!" Milly admonished.

"Anyway," Lily attempted to divert the conversation before it got too hairy; the family always got a little too involved in each others' business. "Petty's with Vernon, who knows where, so she won't be joining us."

"'Petty' is right," Aunt Vi commented.

"Auntie - " Lily pleaded.

"I know, I know, dear," Violet conceded. "It just makes me so disappointed to see that she's the only one not with us."

"Auntie V, don't you think we should have… oh, I dunno… _seats_ or something for the Bennets?" Lily changed the subject, clinging onto a squirming three-year-old – Mary, she thought, so called from her aunt's almost disturbing love of Jane Austen. But she couldn't be sure. The quintuplets (or the Bennets, as she had previously referred to them) were identical.

"Oh, it's only a short drive," Aunt Vi dismissed. "Besides, my driving will get us all there safe."

The next turn shoved all passengers over to the left side of the vehicle.

"Whoops, sorry."

"This driving stuff is GREAT!" Alice screeched as they righted themselves.

**Next chapter will hopefully be up soon… if anybody cares.**

**Something TO care about, though: THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER! June 18! I wish I could be there. Like, you have no idea how much I want to be there instead of running laps.**


	3. Summer Nights

**The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street**

**I'm back. Thank Merlin.**

**I'm not giving up on this fic, contrary to some belief. It's only been two chapters, for Pete's sake! So, on we go. This chapter takes place about two days after the last.**

**Disclaimer: One more year, and then I can write whenever I want. Well. To a further extent than now.**

Chapter 3: Summer Nights

"Dad?"

"Yes, son?"

"Are you sure this is such a good idea?"

James and his father peeked around the jamb of the front door cautiously.

"Coast is clear," Sirius grunted, brashly barging into the house and slamming his bags onto the floor.

"Home sweet home. Well, at least for the summer," Mr. Potter modified, striding over to the window to pull back the curtain. A TV sat in the corner opposite the window, and James stared at it, comparing it to the image Lily's description had given him.

"It's just a Quodpot tourney, Jamesie-boy," Sirius teased, fiddling with a button on the telly. "The Muggles are out of town; your dad conducted his research quite thoroughly. You have nothing to worry about."

"I do rather like America, from what I've seen of it," Mr. Potter commented. "Set your bag down, James," he instructed upon turning around to look at his son.

James dropped the case abruptly, thoughts still on Lily. She said she'd be gone all summer. He hoped his owl would be able to find her, wherever she was.

"So who's playing again?" Sirius asked, his voice fading from behind James as he went on a quest for a bedroom.

"The Indianapolis Inferno against the Missoula Manticores," Mr. Potter replied, and James found a room and shut the door.

After relieving himself in the sparsely decorated bathroom, James tried to think of something to do, but nothing seemed very enjoyable, with the predicament of Lily and her absence on his mind.

"I'm going for a walk," he announced, snatching his wand from his newly-claimed bed and passing his father and his best friend. "Coming, Sirius?"

"Nah, I'll stay," Sirius declined. James closed the door tightly, examined the front of the house they'd just abducted, and set off on his walk.

**Hmm. I wonder what could POSSIBLY happen on this mysterious walk. Sorry for all the filler and buildup. Next chapter's more eventful, and that's not just a placation. :D**


	4. Lily on a Hot Tin Roof

**The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street**

**I'll do one more before I collapse from the exhaustion of exams. But now school's OVER. I'm a SENIOR. That's so weird.**

**Oh, yes, and this can be a bit vague. This is happening simultaneously with the previous chapter. Or at least the first part of this is.**

**Disclaimer: There can only be a passing resemblance if Jo listens to Dreamgirls while writing. I still don't know why you guys are so suspicious of me, jeez. XD**

Chapter 4: Lily on a Hot Tin Roof

"Lily, get up."

Lily groaned, rolling over so that her legs were tucked beneath her curled body. The covers were immediately yanked from the bed, and she made a higher-pitched moan.

"Come on," Alice grinned down at her, far too perky for this time of the morning. "We're helping your gran redo the roofing."

"_What?_" Lily exclaimed in half-ire, half-shock.

"Yes, she's brought a few neighbour boys to help, but there are more hands needed," Alice explained, pulling on her shoes from beneath the neighbouring bed. "She wants us out there in five minutes."

"Good thing I slept in my clothes, then." Lily hoisted herself from the all-too-welcoming bed and yawned mightily. Was it possible to get reverse jetlag? All things considered, Lily much preferred Apparition. Of course, that was completely unfeasible overseas.

Yanking on her shoes, Lily followed Alice to the front yard, where a ladder was propped against the side of the house. Thankfully, they would be climbing up to the one-story garage roof, rather than the rest of the house, one floor higher.

"Good morning, love," Gran greeted, already hard at work upon the shingles. Lily grinned at her awkwardly, trying to put her hair up and start up the ladder simultaneously.

"Did you get a good night's sleep, then?" her grandmother inquired as Lily observed the three slightly sweaty, shirtless guys there to assist them.

"I've had worse," Lily replied honestly. "I'm just glad I'm not back home. Owls can't fly this far," she elaborated under her breath; a visit from the Ministry for James Potter unintentionally revealing the wizarding secret was not what she'd call a great start to the holidays.

"Who'd be owling you?" Gran waved down at the backyard, where Lily could make out the Bennets, Milly, Naomi, Almeda, Penelope, Letty, and Diana holding baby Julianne, all on a gingham blanket in the garden.

"Just – no one." Lily changed her mind halfway; she'd really rather not think about her eternal tormentor the one time she was apart from him.

"Girls!" Grandma called down the ladder, and Alice, Linnea, Cordelia, Fern, Amy, Tabitha, Geri, and Ivy all joined them atop the house. "See that truck down there?"

As it was right in front of them in the driveway, none of them could miss it.

"What you will do is, simply rip the tiles from the roof," Grandma demonstrated heartily, "and throw them down there. Oh, and try not to stab yourselves with these nails. Awfully sharp."

"Obviously," Amy added good-naturedly.

"Who're they?" Alice grinned rakishly. Lily elbowed her, smirking.

"Oh, thank you for reminding me, Alice! This is Tom," one man raised his hand in greeting, "Dick, and Harry." The other two smiled up at them as their names were mentioned.

Tabitha let out a small snort of laughter. Gran gave her a cool look. "Sorry."

Lily got the joke.

Aunt Linny bent down where she stood and rent a tile from the roof. "Well, don't just stand there," she instructed to her younger relatives, who all simply stood watching her.

* * *

James had walked three blocks up the neighbourhood, then turned down a street parallel to the one his family had… ahem… commandeered. He passed an attractive park, but he barely noticed more than his own street sign, to signal him to turn back onto their street of residence.

It felt almost shameful to admit it, but he missed Lily. After only three days, he _missed_ her. James wasn't even sure if he _missed_ Remus and Peter. He felt their absence, certainly, but he wasn't exactly pining after them, now, was he?

There was just something in the way Lily had said she'd be gone all summer. It was almost like he'd gotten used to her dependability. She had always stayed home over the holidays; yet now he wouldn't know where to find her if he needed… well, okay, _wanted_ to owl her or send her something, as he was known for doing.

He often pondered Sirius' remarks that it probably wasn't anything more than puppy love. And yet he hadn't given up for five years of pursuance, albeit annoying to her, as he'd discovered after the O.W.L.s. It had opened his eyes to his own "toeraggy" capabilities, and he had sought to remedy them. It had taken a hell of an effort, but James felt as though last year, sixth year, he had taken major steps with Lily. They weren't the closest of friends (that could be easily interpreted from their last scene of greeting), but she tolerated him now, and sometimes even laughed at his piss-poor jokes! Didn't that have to count for something?

Passing beneath the shade of a large tree, James caught a flash of red from the corner of his eye, and his head jerked around so quickly he thought he heard a crack.

_Pathetic_, James ridiculed himself, nevertheless stepping behind the trunk of the tree to assess the situation.

A group of girls (and, yes, a few men) traipsed about the roof of the house in whose yard he was standing, ripping out shingles and throwing them into the bed of a large truck waiting below them in the driveway. His eyes were immediately drawn to the redhead, as she was the only one amidst the blondes and brunettes. She edged forward a bit to toss the tiles into the truck bed, when out of nowhere, she shrieked and fell in, performing a magnificent flip before disappearing into the bed.

James Potter knew that shriek. James Potter had oft been on the receiving end of that shriek.

"Lily!" he yelled in alarm, his heart inflating a bit all the same as he emerged from his hiding place.

* * *

Lily yanked yet another slightly rotting tile from its place and made to toss it into the disposal truck, when she slipped upon a nail – _the very thing Grams warned about_, she thought wryly – and went tumbling into the truck's bed herself, emitting a shrill cry as she went down.

"Lily! Are you alright?" she heard a few concerned voices from above, but none were louder or more concerned than a deep one.

_None of the men know my name,_ Lily muddled, trying to make her vision stop swirling. James Potter's head peeked from above the rim of the truck's bed, glasses sliding down his face.

_Great, now I'm hallucinating, too. Must've really hit my head._

"Lily!" Potter vaulted the truck, landing much more gracefully than she had upon the discarded shingles. He immediately knelt beside her, taking her head in his hands (probably more roughly than he was intending), and began swiveling it this way and that.

"Potter, what are you _doing?_" Lily demanded, wrenching his hands from her aching head.

"Checking for abrasions," Potter said brashly, standing up to meet her.

"Checking for - ! Potter, _what are you doing here?_"

"Hey, you're that bloke from back in Surrey!" Cordelia exclaimed, having made it to the scene of the crime. "Well, I never. Gran, one of Lily's school friends is here!"

"James Potter?" Alice asked incredulously, leaning over the rain gutter.

"How d'you do, Alice?" James nodded considerately.

As more of Lily's cousins gathered at the lowest part of the slanted roof, Lily raised her eyebrows, awaiting explanation.

"Look," Potter eyed the three diligently working men warily, "could we perhaps go inside or something? It has to do with… you know, _us_," he explained in a low voice.

"Fine," Lily huffed. She raised her arms above her head to the top of the truck's high walls and braced herself to launch upward. She could feel Potter hovering behind her.

"I don't need _help_, Potter," she snarled, hoisting herself over the edge and dropping to the ground, dusting off her jacket.

Potter responded with something, but Lily didn't hear, as Gran chose then to inquire as to her health.

"I'm fine, Grandma," Lily soothed, her tone of voice much softer for her grandmother. "We'll only be a moment."

"Nonsense, Lily," Gran called down. "You stay inside, dear. Heaven knows you'll need to lie down; you must be rather dizzy."

Lily would rather not admit it in front of Potter, so she simply stalked (slightly unsteadily) into the house, the boy following behind her obediently.

This summer was making out to be interesting already.

**Oh, dearie. It'll be good times from here on out.**

**I feel like my characters are flat. Tell me: are my characters flat? Round? Square? Be brutal.**


	5. Serious Business

**The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street**

**NEW TITLE TIME. Anyone got any good ideas? I just… REALLY hate myself for calling the fic the name of the dumb town.**

**Disclaimer: Jo has written FAR more than 50,000 words in all of her novels.**

Chapter 5: Serious Business

Lily pointed to the couch in the small living room. Potter obediently sat.

"Now," Lily sank into the chair opposite, hands rising to her aching temples, "again. _What _are you doing here?"

Potter had made himself quite at home, sprawled across most of the long sofa. "Well, you remember my mum died last winter."

Lily's demeanour changed, and she immediately felt remorseful for being hard on him. "Of course. I'm sorry."

"Yeah, you said that about eighty times last year."

Lily blushed. It had been her way of trying to make amends for tearing him down every time she saw him. After all, when his mother died, she wanted to make sure he knew it was all in jest. Well, mostly. She actually rather enjoyed his company, when he wasn't asking her out. "Yeah."

"Well, Sirius and my dad and I are here. We live right next door, actually."

Lily couldn't fathom why, or how such a coincidence could have occurred. "…Was it some last wish of hers?" she asked awkwardly, fishing for a reason for them to come to the American Midwest.

"Nah, there's a Quodpot tournament." Potter flashed her the characteristic smirk that Lily was used to pairing with scarlet ties and flowing robes.

Lily scowled. So much for a respectable reason.

"It is simply pure chance that we are in the same country, much less the same neighbourhood," Potter summarised, crossing to the kitchen and plucking a few grapes from the fruit bowl on the counter. Lily got up to follow.

"Ah, ah, ah," Potter admonished, and Lily was so taken aback that she sat back down. The boy filled a glass with water and set it down on the end table next to her. "Your grandmother's right. You should make sure you're not feeling poorly before doing anything strenuous."

"Like carrying on a normal conversation with you, perhaps?" Lily jibed.

The door creaked a bit, signalling that Alice had entered the room. "You all right, Lils?" she asked concernedly, sitting down on the arm of Lily's chair and gently rubbing her head.

"I'm fine, Al. It was just a little jarring, that's all."

Alice looked around the room. "Where'd Potter go? I thought you came in here with him, to talk about…" Alice trailed off, knowing full well that if a Muggle was nearby and heard them talking about wizards, they'd be done for. "…You know."

Lily looked about as well, realising that Potter had left. "I dunno. Maybe he went back home!" _Please have gone home._

Potter reentered the room from the hallway. "You're not getting rid of me that easily, Evans," he said cheekily. Lily and Alice looked at each other, trying to resist rolling their eyes.

Upon seeing that he'd been getting a blanket for her, Lily burst, "Potter, it's _summer_, for Merlin's sake, and I'm dizzy, not incapacitated."

"Aha!" Potter exclaimed. "So you _do_ admit that you're not well!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "I admitted _no such thing_, Potter."

The impish grin fell from Potter's face. "I wish you'd stop that."

"Stop what? Complaining?" Lily inquired persistently. "I'm an Evans; it's in my nature."

"No, calling me Potter."

The thought was so alien to Lily, that she could simply call James Potter by his given name, that she didn't even notice he had left till he was gone.

"Well," Alice drawled. "That was solemn."

**Oh, this story is turning out so CLICHÉ. But I love it. Besides, that's the point of fanfiction. To be terrible. At least in my case.**

**So, yes. New title. I need that, and I'm too lazy to think up one on my own. Pretty please will anyone suggest anything?**


	6. Sirius Bidness

**The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street**

**Strange how I like to write these in twos. I KNOW. I'll shake things up and write THREE this time. Whut.**

**Disclaimer: I am SUCH a rebel. Rowling, regrettably, is not as badass as me. She is more so.**

Chapter 6: Sirius Bidness

"Padfoot!" Sirius was tackled from the couch where he was being entranced by the television to the ground.

"What the bloody - "

"Look out the window." James hopped from foot to foot impatiently, waiting for his best friend to get up. Sirius heaved a deep sigh and drew the curtains from the window, shaking his head at James acting like he needed the restroom.

"I don't get it."

James was agog at his friend's lack of intuition. "Don't you see the house?"

"Yeah, I see the house," Sirius nodded, a bit bewildered now. "What about the house?"

"_She_'s there, Pads," James sighed dreamily. Sirius had to resist rolling his eyes.

"Firstly, I am saddened at my own ability to understand exactly who you are talking about." Sirius sat on the couch again, pulling James' shirt sleeve so he sank as well. "But more importantly, _what_ the hell are you talking about?"

James leapt to his feet once more. "C'mon," he mandated, "I'll take you." Passing his father in the hallway, James yelled, "I'm taking this lump to see the love of my life!" over his shoulder as he dragged Sirius physically out the door.

"So nice to see he's made friends already," Mr. Potter noted in bemusement.

James strolled up next-door's driveway, waving to the girls on the roof, who all greeted him in return.

"Dames, mate?" Sirius inquired, suddenly much more ready to be outside than he had been. James rolled his eyes.

"They're Lily's family, stupid. Most of them are little girls."

"But why didn't you tell me there'd be girls?" Sirius pressed as James barged into a house that wasn't his own and made his way toward the giggling from the living room.

"Sirius?" Lily still sat in the chair James had left her in, with Alice occupying James' former seat, still hiccupping with laughter.

"See, I told you it was her," James crowed triumphantly to Sirius.

"You brought him _here_, James?" Lily groaned. "When you _know_ that every single person staying in this house is of the female persuasion?"

Sirius perked up still further. "_Every_ person?" James could have smacked him, but Sirius beat him to it, lightly patting James' cheeks. "Well, I won't keep you longer," he promised, exiting the same way he'd come. "Alice, dear," he waved.

"Nice to see you too," Alice murmured, nose in one of Lily's grandmother's magazines.

"Great," Lily muttered, and made to get up. James made to stop her.

"Are you going to do this every time I try to move?" Lily asked irritably. "I've got to make sure he doesn't injure himself trying to impress so many people at once."

Instead of keeping her sitting, James reached out a hand and helped Lily to her feet. "You called me Ja-ames," he sing-songed, playfully knocking into her shoulder and scarcely able to believe his luck after only fifteen minutes.

"You know, sometimes you really display some thoroughly female traits," Lily remarked. Alice smirked.

James looked at her quizzically. "Sorry."

"Yes, I called you James," Lily went on. "It's not like it's not your name."

"Well, you never called me that before. At least, not past the Sorting Ceremony back in first year." James grinned widely, motioning Lily through the door before he went through. To his surprise, she let him.

"That's because you were a prat. And because you just told me fifteen minutes ago to give up." Before James had the chance to say anything, Lily shrieked, "BLACK! Get away from my cousin!" and ran off to save poor Diana from the young wizard.

Lily was talking to him civilly. In an effort to keep his record of not acting like a girl intact, James refrained from dancing on the spot.

**I know it seems a little weirdly immature. I explain things. I really hope you guys have a well-maintained crap filter.**


	7. Want Some Wine With All That Cheese?

**The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street**

**Five days later than the last chapter. Just to let you know.**

**I'm sleepy. Sorry this is sucking so much more than I anticipated. The only awesome part is the chapter titles. I take great pride in those, as I took great pains to get them to be like normal titles in other fanfics.**

**Gah, I am such a poser. XD**

**Disclaimer: Poser? J. K. Rowling? You gotta be kidding me.**

Chapter 7: Want Some Wine With All That Cheese?

The park down at the end of the block was proving to be one of Lily's favourite haunts. She loved her family, she really did, but she'd grown up in a house of two girls, not twenty. She needed her alone time, and after going a week without, she'd only just managed to escape.

Sitting on the swing in the playground past sunset gave her some time to think. James and, on occasion, Sirius, had come over to the house every day. The girls, who had heard Lily's James Potter Rant before, were beginning to become suspicious of her true esteem of James.

"Lily, I thought you said you hated him!" Tabitha had accused three days ago, after Lily had stomped James at Solitaire.

"That's right, you were always going on about how annoying he is at school," Amy pointed out, which only led to a slew of obnoxious comments from the rest of the family until Lily had shouted that she was going to bed.

Well, you can't pick your family.

But Alice was always just behind them, _goading _her and _rolling _her eyes and _encouraging the cousins! _Sometimes Lily thought they had cottoned on to Alice a bit too quickly.

The truth was, Lily had never _hated_ James Potter. He had been insufferable, yes, and he had more natural talent than she, yes, and WHY DID HE HAVE TO BE BETTER THAN HER AT EVERYTHING. But. She'd never hated him. She even thought that he could have been amusing most of the time, had he not constantly bombarded her with Hogsmeade invites.

Last year, the invites had slowed, and James had begun to be more bearable. In fact, by the end of the year, he was positively tolerable. (Of course, that didn't mean Lily had to show it in public.) And now, with no one else from school around (discounting Sirius, who was more like a growth than a classmate), his likability was increasing every day. It wasn't that much of a challenge to call him by his first name, just an unusual change of pace for her.

Problem was, Lily feared that James had a bit more than friendship in his hopes. And she simply did not. It could be a recipe for disaster, unless she played her cards right. James was funny, smart, and handsome, but not the person for her.

Now _Sirius_ was another matter. He had always been easier to get along with than James, if only because he displayed no particular interest in Lily, for dating or pranking. To him, she was a nice girl, and to her, he was an entertaining lad. This summer, though, was shaping up to be worse, as he only hung around her house out of boredom and desire to hook up with one of her (admittedly gorgeous) cousins.

Lily wasn't related to them for nothing, though. The girls had enough sense not to fool around on some stupid summer fling. James would just have to find a way to reel in his best friend.

Gravel crunched underfoot, and Lily looked up, expecting Alice, only to see a silhouette with untamable hair approaching.

_Speak of the devil, and he shall appear_, she thought, rising from her swing.

They met in the middle of the sea of metal apparatuses, James running a hand through his hair. Lily resisted the tug as her brain tried to make her eyes roll, but smiled nonetheless.

"Hey," James said, and his voice cracked.

"Hey yourself," Lily replied, trying not to smirk too widely. Wordlessly, she set off around the lake to their backs, knowing he'd follow.

"So, when _is_ this Quodpot showdown anyway?" Lily inquired once her companion had caught up.

"Next month. August second, to be precise." They came to a small bridge and stopped, no artificial light now visible behind the bushes and rushes surrounding them. The moonlight beamed onto the water, naturally illuminating the space. Lily stopped to look down into the lake.

"I've never been a big sports fan," she admitted. "At least, not until joining the wizarding world. Quidditch is brilliant."

"Ah, and here I always thought you only went to the matches to watch me fly around in my nice spiffy uniform," James joked. Lily hit him on the chest, smirking.

Her big green eyes met his bespectacled hazel ones, and James caught her hand. "Peter just owled me this afternoon," he told her. "He can't make it to the match. Which means we have one extra ticket…" He let the sentence trail off, as if tantalising her with the possibility.

Lily laughed, taking her hand back. "I dunno," she answered. "For one thing, I'd have to ask my gran, and my cousins would all develop raging jealousy. I wouldn't want to leave Alice behind, and there's also the added matter of my company." They set off walking again. "You, Sirius, Remus, I expect," James nodded his affirmation, "and your father. Remus and your dad I could handle, but you and Sirius? I'm not so sure."

"Speaking of Sirius, he's probably snuck over to your house by now, peering into the windows on his broom," James pointed out.

Lily shrugged, making the final bend around the small lake's shore. "My aunt Linnea knows judo."

"At least Sirius won't be able to have children. No need for more of him running around."

Lily laughed loudly. "I'd best be headed back."

"Well, if you're going, there's no need for me to stay," James stated, following her up the street. Lily cringed, far enough ahead of him that he couldn't see.

She'd really have to talk to him about the state of their relationship, she realised, make sure he didn't harbour any false hopes. She'd simply prefer that conversation to be later rather than sooner.


	8. Rollin' Along

**The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street**

**This… this is good!**

**I took a long break from this, but then I got another title idea, which actually doesn't suck, and then I went back and edited in some crap in all the previous chapters, and now it no longer reeks of awful. So now I will write again.**

**Disclaimer: My birthday was not July 31.**

Chapter 8: Rollin' Along

"Do you have any plans today, Lily?" Gran asked after breakfast, as they were washing the dishes together.

Lily shrugged. "No, why would I?" she asked. "I don't exactly have any friends here besides Alice, have I?"

"You know those boys next door," Gran pointed out, and Lily turned away to dry some knives.

"They're not exactly the company I'd like to keep in a quiet neighbourhood, Gran," Lily declared. "We'd be convicted for disturbing the peace."

"Why don't you ask them if they'd like to accompany you and some of the girls to the roller rink?" Gran suggested. Lily cocked her head, thinking.

At first contemplation, she wanted to decline immediately, imagining all the ways Sirius and James could make the day go awry, but after some consideration, she decided to give it a go.

"How many are going?" she asked, turning back to her grandmother.

"Let's see," Gran began to calculate, "Cordelia will supervise you all, and I know Millicent isn't feeling well today. Go ahead and ask everyone their intentions."

* * *

"Seriously, Padfoot?" Sirius had haphazardly knocked over James' bowl of cereal, splashing milk all over James' shirt.

"Whoops," Sirius grumbled insincerely.

There was a knock on the front door, and James stood up, shooting one last glare at his friend's night-owl head. Milk dripped down his front, and he opened the door, yawning and giving his head a good scratch.

Lily Evans looked down, a bit red. "Um, good morning."

"Lily." James' eyes went wide, and he looked down at the large milk stain on his shirt.

"Um, I was wondering," Lily was saying to the doormat, "if you'd - " James shut the door mechanically, scrambling to find clothes.

* * *

The door opened once more, and Lily looked up to see a dishevelled Sirius Black, who wordlessly beckoned her into the house.

"Not much of a morning person, are you?" Lily commented dryly. Sirius just grunted and fell facedown onto the couch. Lily sat gingerly on the unoccupied cushion.

She really shouldn't have been so interested in their temporary home, as it wasn't actually the Potters', but she couldn't keep herself from taking in every inch of the living room, complete with television set.

A door clicked shut. From down the hall, James said, "Great. Lily's gone. I scared her off, Pad, I know I - " Lily waved to him from the end of the couch, and Sirius rolled around so that his feet were on her lap.

"Let's go outside," James suggested, removing Sirius' putrid feel from Lily's vicinity. "My dad and this lump are obviously still sleeping."

"I just stopped by," Lily explained once they were safely out of the house and making their way to hers, "to invite you to come to the roller rink down the way with us. Us being myself, Alice, and my cousins Cordy, Geri, Ivy, and Naomi, so not too big a crowd."

James was nodding before her sentence was finished, so Lily took it as a yes.

"Here's the thing," Lily hedged, opening the door. "Go in," she instructed when James didn't move.

"Ladies first," James insisted.

Rolling her eyes, Lily entered the house, James following. "Here's the thing," Lily began again, talking over the toddlers shrieking and thudding of footsteps from all rooms. "We'll have to Side-Along. You got your license last year, right?"

"I was in your testing group, Lily," James scoffed.

"Right," Lily recalled. "I'll take Cordelia and Naomi, you get Geraldine, and Alice will help Ivy. Deal?"

"You got it, Evans," James agreed, holding out his hand as though it were actually a solemn pact. Lily rolled her eyes again as she took it, and a shock went through both of their hands.

"Whoops," James muttered sheepishly. "Must've been dragging my feet again. My mum hated it when I did that."

* * *

Lily nodded awkwardly, and told James to sit down while she tracked down their passengers. James did so.

The couch sank a bit as Alice joined him. James pointed discreetly across the room at one of Lily's cousins, who was watching something on the television. "I can never remember who they all are," James complained.

"That's Tabitha," Alice informed him. "She's fifteen, and could tell you that herself if you weren't such a pansy."

Before James could fake-retort, Lily returned with four girls in tow. "Right," she handed both James and Alice slips of paper with an address on them. "Let's go outside so we don't give the Bennets a scare." They wound their way around the toddling children and went out the back door. A quarter turn to the left and they were at the roller rink.

"Take off your shoes," Lily instructed Alice and James, as her cousins all promptly sat on the floor and began wiggling out of their footwear.

"Why?" James asked in surprise, but Lily wasn't listening. She was hopping around, attempting to pry off her shoe while desperately trying to keep her balance at the same time. Alice was doubled over with laughter, her left shoe half-untied.

James reached out and steadied Lily with his arms. Lily blushed and finally succeeded in detaching her shoe from her foot, and the other one for good measure. "Thanks," she grinned, now trying not to laugh at Alice's desperate bids for air.

James took off his shoes, Lily and Alice now both almost in tears, and the cousins all chortling along.

* * *

"Lily, I never remember you being this…" Ivy seemed to be fishing for words.

"Crazy?" Alice offered. Lily elbowed her sharply in the ribs. "Ow!"

"Exactly," Cordelia agreed, and stuck her tongue out at Lily when she tried to hit her as well.

They all received roller skates and proceeded to fasten them onto their feet.

"You're twenty, Cordy," Lily accused. "You're supposed to be beyond sticking your tongue out like a nine-year-old."

"Hey!" Naomi yelled, pretending to sound hurt.

They all laughed, and the girls stood up to enter the wooden rink. But when Lily counted heads, there were only six. She looked back to the bench, and James was just sitting there. Lily skated back to him.

"Aren't you coming?" she laughed.

"Lily, I've never done this before," James admitted.

Lily guffawed. "Well, neither has Alice, and she's having the time of her life! Look!" Sure enough, Alice was on her bottom and laughing uproariously as Geraldine, also laughing, tried to help her up. "Come on."

Lily leaned down and grabbed James' hands, hoisting him to his feet. "Merlin!" she huffed. "How much do you weigh?"

"It's all that muscle, baby," James crooned. Lily's peals of laughter echoed off the high walls as she led him onto the rink.

He promptly fell down.

Lily spent most of the afternoon helping James off his arse while the girls sped around the rink, most of the time falling themselves.

It was great.

**Oh, James. Look how nice she's being to you. Now you're going to fall even more hopelessly in love with the poor girl.**


	9. Kill It Kill It Kill It

**The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street**

**Ugh. Blue dye is dripping down my nose.**

**Yep, that's right. I dyed my hair blue. This is the seventh time I've dyed it a weird colour. I was just bored a couple of nights ago, and the next day was Wacky Wednesday at school, and I was thinking, "I wish I could dye my hair again," but I'm broke, so I couldn't buy any dye.**

**But then I remembered that I had about half a bottle sitting in my room! So I dyed my bangs blue. The end.**

**Disclaimer: That story up there was OBVIOUSLY the work of me, J. K. Rowling. See how the prose flows. (Haha, "prose flows".)**

**See, this is why I don't write poetry.**

Chapter 9: Kill It Kill It Kill It

A bloodcurdling screech rent the air on Thursday morning, causing the breaking of a china dish, the waking and crying of several toddlers, and the registering of a Level One earthquake ten miles away.

"What the hell, Alice?" Lily demanded, shaking her head to get the ringing out of her ears. Having been seated right next to Alice, she'd gotten the brunt of her patented scream.

"Alice, what's _wrong_?" Diana inquired as well, poking her head around the doorframe, soon followed by about eight other voices asking the same thing. Living with more than three people made conversations a bit repetitive, as Lily was quickly learning.

Alice had executed a strange kind of leap that culminated in her legs being suddenly underneath the rest of her body on the couch.

"Do you want me to Floo Frank?" Lily asked gently after a few moments of Alice's silence. They had finally located an American wizarding street, though it was in Ohio, one state away. Thanks to Lily's wonderful Apparition skills, though, the two had made it easily and spent a delightful few hours exploring Increment Alley, where Lily had purchased some emergency Floo powder, only to be used in dire cases.

This did not qualify. But it's the thought that counts.

Alice shook her head and pointed vaguely to the floor. "I s-saw a s-spider."

Diana and the other girls simply shrugged. Lily, however, leapt onto the couch with her best friend.

"Oh, Merlin," she began to hyperventilate. This made Alice panic still further, and Lily managed to get herself under control to placate Alice, who was much more afraid of insects than she.

"Okay, okay," she thought aloud, aware that she was making a perfect fool of herself and not caring. "I'll… go. Be right back."

She Apparated outside, at which point she dashed up to the Potters' door and banged on it.

James answered it, looking confused. "Lily, what's wrong?"

"No time, just come," she ordered, yanking on his arm so he was dragged along in her Apparition back to her grandmother's couch.

Alice shrieked, and James looked around, drawing his wand.

"Um, Lily? You know we could have walked the few hundred yards to your back door, right?"

"It's urgent!" Lily shrieked adamantly. "There is a spider! You must kill it!"

She could tell James was trying his utmost not to roll his eyes. "Where did it go?" he asked wearily.

"Um." Lily turned to Alice, the question in her eyes. Alice shrugged as well. She turned back to James, who by now had dismounted from the couch. "No idea. Wave your wand, see what it does."

"I take it you've never been spider-hunting, then?" James teased.

Lily actually did roll her eyes. "Just do it," she begged. "We'll be here."

* * *

Ten minutes of irrational huddling later, James reentered the room, along with Aunt Linnea. "Dead," he proclaimed, and he and Linny high-fived.

"You're sure?" Lily asked Linnea, as she knew James would make some joke out of it. Linnea nodded assuringly.

"Super," Alice declared, exiting the room. "I'm getting some cake."

James offered his hand to Lily, and she took it, allowing him to pull her from the sofa.

"For the record," James said, "I'd kill anything that was bothering you."

"Great; now can you deal with Sirius?"

**Ooh, SNAP! It's too bad he wasn't there to feel the sting of that BURN.**

**If it's disjointed, I'm sorry; I had to stop midway through and watch J. K. Rowling on Oprah. :D**


	10. Hide and Freak

**The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street**

**Ooh. Serious chapter. This was sad to write.**

**Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling writes intenseness so much better than me.**

Chapter 10: Hide and Freak

"Ready or not, here I come!"

Lily tried to stifle her breathing as she heard Ivy approach. Ivy was "it" in their game of Sardines, and Lily had stuffed herself into the bathroom closet.

A loud pop sounded from behind her, and Lily screamed and leapt out of the closet, letting the light reveal…

James. Of course.

"Lily! Found you!" Ivy crowed, flinging open the bathroom door.

"Look what you did," Lily reprimanded the boy, who was looking about the room in confusion.

"I was aiming for the back door," he confessed. "Guess I overshot it a bit."

"Go hide somewhere," Lily instructed.

"What?"

"It's a game," she explained. "I'll come find you."

Lily counted down and proceeded to find Almeda, Amy, Aunt Linny, and Tabitha. Opening the dumbwaiter, Fern spilled out of the small opening. But after ten minutes of investigation (unearthing Milly and Alice), James was still nowhere to be found.

Lily passed the bathroom. _He can't be_, she thought, but she opened the closet door just the same and stepped in to look behind the sliding door. Which proceeded to shut behind her.

"Very funny, James," she huffed, nonverbally lighting her wand. Red eyes and slit nostrils were suddenly (and unattractively) illuminated.

Lily shrieked and instinctively Apparated (_Alohomora _would take too long) and found herself in the park down the street, mind in a panic.

With a chill, she realised that her family was still in there, along with a missing James. She had to go back!

But a gripping fear clenched at her heart, and she couldn't make herself go back.

_Lily!_ she shrieked in her own head. _You are a GRYFFINDOR! If you don't go back, they'll all DIE!_

It was maddening.

Steeling herself to go closer, Lily prepared to Apparate, when the hairs on the back of her neck stood up.

"You think you can escape me, Mudblood?" Voldemort hissed from behind.

Almost paralysed with fear, Lily did the only thing she could think of: Apparate again. With her wand in her pocket, she wouldn't have stood a chance, and it was almost like a convulsion, the speed she turned.

"MR. POTTER!" Lily shrieked when she realised she was at James' house, pounding on the door hysterically, knowing full well that Voldemort could hear her down the road and would either Apparate, or just walk the half a damn block to where she was.

Lily had never been afraid for her life before, but she was finding, oddly enough, that it wasn't exactly an experience she would ever look forward to.

The door was flung open. Sirius looked at her like she was mad.

"Sirius!" Lily leapt inside and slammed the door, though she was sure it wouldn't do any good. "Come on! You've got to help! I can't find James, and Voldemort was in my HOUSE!"

A crash sounded from the kitchen. "Lily?" James ran into the room, wand aloft.

"Where _were_ you?" Lily gasped.

"You said to hide," James explained, looking confused, and Lily decided that now was not the time to describe to him the specifics of Sardines.

Hugely frustrated now, Lily grabbed both boys by the arm and Apparated once more into her attic, where (thank _Merlin_) Gran had marshaled most everyone into cleaning out boxes from her move.

They dashed down the stairs, ignoring the few shrieks they received from their abrupt appearance, and Lily ran into the babies' room.

She shoved babies upon Sirius and James, and they darted upstairs. Alice appeared, and Lily shoved a pacifier into Julianne's mouth so she wouldn't cry.

James returned for Lydia, the last of the youngsters, and they hightailed it into the attic, extinguishing lights and electronics as they went, the better to hear.

"Your door is locked?" James ensured.

"Yes, of course," Lily assured him, locking the attic door in turn.

Alice was feverishly putting up magical wards, and Sirius was simply repeating everything she said, to make them stronger. A quick head count showed Lily a complete family, and she sighed in relief.

Then Diana asked, "Where's Milly?"

Cold fear crept up Lily's back, and this was the straw that broke her back, for her knees went weak and James had to grab her with the arm that wasn't holding Lydia. She had miscounted. James and Sirius were extras, and Milly was still out there.

Still playing Sardines.

A loud blast on the door kept Lily from fainting, and she ushered cousins and grandmother behind rows of boxes, creating some where there were gaps.

"Just be quiet and keep calm," she instructed, and her voice cracked, completely ruining the effect. Naomi began to cry for her oldest sister, the only one missing. Lily gulped and took her place with her friends, wand out and ready to fight.

More bangs sounded, as well as hisses and roars of rage. After two minutes of successful frustration, Lily grabbed Alice and held her tightly, silently thanking her for the wards.

The noises ended. Lily didn't dare leave the attic.

"We can just stay up here," Alice whispered. "We can make beds, and food, for a little while. It'll vanish, but it'll do."

Lily closed her eyes, willing herself to do what she had to. "I need to find Milly."

Sirius pulled her into a hug, along with Alice. James grabbed her hand. "I'm going with you," he promised.

Alice opened her mouth to agree, but Lily said, "No. Someone needs to keep my family safe."

She ducked behind the pile of boxes, looked at all the frightened faces of her loved ones, and said, "I'm finding Milly. If I don't come back - " her voice broke. She swallowed. "I love you all."

Her grandmother opened her mouth as well, but seemed to have no words to give Lily. She understood.

Edging down to the stairs, Lily grabbed the door and flung it open, James' comforting hand on her back.

Darkness.

"_Lumos,"_ Lily whispered, terrified lest Voldemort still be out there. What she saw was far worse.

Milly lay crumpled at the end of the hall, unmoving.

Lily fell to the floor, half-sobbing, all unconscious.

**AAAAAGH I HATE THIS.**

**I couldn't decide who had to die, so I went around my classes and asked people to pick a letter (I had written the initials of all the girls on a piece of paper), and they ended up choosing Millicent. I think my friends are scarred, 'cause I actually told them what I was doing after they'd chosen. I was like, "Well, she's being killed." The looks of horror on their faces were precious.**


	11. Pine Away

**The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street**

**Ah blah blah.**

**CONTINUING! Because I'm bored, and I apparently don't want to pass any of my tests, because I'm not studying!**

**Yay for Friday tests. *strangles self***

**Disclaimer: Seriously! Is Friday International Examination Day or something?**

Chapter 11: Pine Away

James' father had known how to get Milly's body back to England and her family, so he came by while Lily was still knocked out, as soon as he found out.

Naomi, baby Letty, and the Bennets had been sent home to Aunt Vi, who had insisted via Lily's Floo call that it hadn't been her fault. Naomi had tried to hug her, which hadn't gone too well.

A week had passed, and the house was being better protected. They could still feel safe leaving, but as the British Ministry hadn't yet caught wind of Voldemort's whereabouts, and the American counterpart thought he only bothered those over the pond, Alice and Lily were on red alert, locking every door at night and setting _Cave Inimicum _atop the roof after dark.

This drove Lily _crazy_.

The grief had subsided from the house, leaving mostly boredom, and some loneliness after losing eight people from their group. A recent letter from Aunt Vi informed them that the family had moved from Surrey to Kent, but they truly did all need more excitement.

So when Gran mentioned the public lake she had seen driving home from the market, the girls had jumped at the chance.

And who better to accompany them than two strong, wand-equipped men?

"Anyone!" Lily had insisted when Amy had posed to her this very question.

"Oh, _please_, Lily?" Amy pleaded. "I just want to see them with their shirts off!"

Well, at least she was honest.

Grandma's van was loaded up, and Cordelia had borrowed the neighbours' pickup truck for the day, to ferry the sixteen people to Pine Lake. The boys were shunted to the bed of the truck, which was perfectly fine by them.

Upon arriving at the lake, Sirius had gallantly taken every piece of equipment that they had brought to the lake upon himself, and proceeded to fall down the steep but grassy hill leading to the shore.

Lily snorted, interpreting this as a good omen for the rest of the day.

Shirts were removed, baby diapers were bestowed upon Penelope and Julianne, and cannonballs were executed. Lily helped Gran lay out a large blanket on the hill, and propped up Julianne in such a way that she wouldn't fall down, cleverly utilising a stack of towels, a baby potty, and a screwdriver she found in the sand.

Determined to catch her cousins in the middle of the water, Lily flung off her beach dress and dove swiftly into the lake.

Before her head went under, she could've sworn she heard an incredulous "_Damn_." Must've been her mind playing tricks on her again.

* * *

By the end of the evening, Lily had gone down twelve slides, held her breath underwater for two minutes (witch, remember?), swam for eight hours, and given both James and Sirius painful wedgies, assisted by the murky water.

Her hair dripped, a scarlet waterfall, and she snatched a towel from James to squeeze it out.

They boarded the vehicles, Lily taking shotgun in the truck, and set off for home, the open windows drying them quite effectively.

"_Evans is quite fit, isn't she?"_

Oh hell no.

"_Shut up, Sirius."_

"_Don't lie, you wanted to come so you could see her in a suit, didn't ya, mate?"_

There was a pause, and Lily prayed that the heat on her cheeks was just from the wind friction.

"_We've also got to protect her. That Voldemort attack? He's starting to go after Muggleborns himself, Sirius. And he's not afraid to kill."_

"_No Shrake."_

Almeda curled up against Lily from the middle seat, and Lily stroked her little blonde head absentmindedly, wondering if she should put the _Protego totalum _over the house as well tonight.

**Meh. I was too lazy to write a whole, lustful beach scene. XD**


	12. Soup's On

**The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street**

**Yes, this is late. But suck it up, because it's ALL-NIGHTER TIME!**

**So, I was looking through my notes, and I forgot that last chapter was supposed to be James' POV. But oh well. I'm just making up for it by throwing it in here.**

**I'm on a Monroll! *lol that was funny***

**Disclaimer: I love AVPM way too much to be JKR.**

Chapter 12: Soup's On

Sirius and Mr. Potter were snoring loudly, so James decided it was high time to visit Lily.

Who was also still sleeping.

Because it was four in the morning.

James left her room and flopped onto the sofa, letting out a huff of air. What was he supposed to do in the hours the family would still be asleep?

That's when he saw the box of brownies sitting on the counter.

Light rained down from heaven as angels strummed on harps and sang.

James grabbed the brownies, reading the directions. _Only three ingredients. Not too hard._

James found the eggs the oil, and the measuring cups. Following the directions was the easiest thing in the world.

_I won't even _need_ a house-elf, _James thought into the future, when he heard a fussing down the hall.

Lighting his wand, James looked into five dismally empty cribs until he came to a squalling Penelope. Gently, he picked her up, and got Julianne for good measure. Taking them both into the conjoined living room/kitchen, he laid out a blanket for them both to play on, and sleep on if they got tired again. Finding the toybox, James tossed some blocks and rings of some sort in between them.

Satisfied with his work, James went back to stirring his brownies.

"James?"

James froze, brownie-coated spatula in midair. Lily stood in the doorway, rubbing tired eyes. Her robe was open, and all she wore was a short silky nightgown.

James gulped.

A small _plop_ registered in the back of his mind, but his mind was a little preoccupied at the moment.

Eyes still bleary with sleep, Lily scooped the fallen batter off the floor. "Put that spatula down, Billywig-brain," she mandated, licking the chocolate off her finger. "'S good," she remarked, going against herself and grabbing the spatula. "So, why are you here at four-thirty in the morning?" she inquired, licking more batter off the spatula.

"I was awake and bored," James answered, fighting to keep his cool. He took a fingerful of batter from the bowl. "Where's your wand?" he asked, more seriously.

"Please, James, sneaking around isn't Voldemort's style," she scoffed. "Besides, the wards would have gone off." Lily yawned.

James took the spatula from her and put it back in the bowl. "Go back to bed, Lily."

Lily nodded vaguely, stepped over Penelope and Julianne, and fell onto the couch, grabbing a blanket. James put the brownies in the oven and sat in the chair opposite her, watching her sleep.

_I am _such _a creep._

The oven beeped. James took out the brownies. Penelope looked over and raised her arms at him, so he picked her up and crumbled a warm brownie into pieces for her.

"Lily," Alice called softly from down the hall. Lily gasped and sat up.

"Lily, some owl's at the window, and he won't come in for me," Alice told her. Lily left to get her owl, and Alice looked down curiously at Julianne, asleep on the blanket. "James!" she started when she saw him. James nodded to her, tossing Penelope around in his lap. "Any particular reason you're here at five in the morning?"

"Couldn't sleep," James answered, unable to adequately explain. "Go back to bed."

"Hark who's talking," Alice retorted, cheekily sticking her tongue out, though retreating to her and Lily's room just the same.

A minute later, Lily returned. "James, isn't this your owl?" she inquired, carrying a barn owl on her arm.

"Aderyn!" James called, and she flew to him, nipping his ear, hooting good-naturedly. After that greeting, however, she flew straight back to Lily, pecking a bit at her hair. Lily instinctively flinched a bit.

James laughed. "She likes you," he told her.

"She seems nice," Lily agreed, though she didn't seem very sure.

"Addie!" James called, clapping his hands, and Aderyn fluttered obediently to him. Penelope slid from his lap to the floor, toddling over toward the blocks once more. "Time to go home, love."

Lily waved with a rueful smile, and James ducked out the back door.

"You've got quite a story to tell me, haven't you?" he crooned to his owl. "How'd you get across the Atlantic?"

**She's quite the talented bird, really. Aderyn's Welsh for "bird", in case anyone was curious. I was too lazy to come up with a name of my own, so I just made the Internet do it. XD**


	13. Ruh Roh

**The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street**

**Sorry I haven't been here in a while, but… it's NaNoWriMo. So. Yeah. Any other Wrimos out there?**

**Disclaimer: I wish I was cool enough to have SUCH A GOOD MOVIE (just saw it for the second time), but I'm totally not JKR. :(**

Chapter 13: Ruh-Roh

Lily went back to her room after James' departure. Alice was already asleep again in their shared bed.

The sun was rising, and Lily was no longer tired, so she threw on some clothes and went out to sit on the porch, _Black Magics for the Modern Sorceress _tucked under her arm. (Alice had looked at her rather weirdly when she purchased it in Increment Alley, but she had picked it out specifically to get into the psyche of Dark witches.)

Gran always got up early, and Lily knew that she had awoken by the smell of pancakes cooking about an hour later. Mildly disturbed by her book, she closed it and went inside, joining Amy at the otherwise deserted table; none of the cousins were exactly morning people.

"Morning," Amy greeted, shoveling delicious pancakes into her mouth. "Mmm. I missed these so much."

Lily nodded in agreement, wolfing down her first bite.

"So, what are you doing with James today?" Amy asked, wiping her syrupy mouth with a napkin. Lily swallowed a drink of milk heavily.

"What makes you think I'm doing something with James?" she asked in surprise and poorly-disguised guilt.

Amy raised her eyebrows. "Really, Lils?" She laughed a little, setting down her fork. "There have been, what, three days when he wasn't around you?"

Lily blushed, but didn't contest the allegation. Tabitha came to the table, grabbed a pancake, and stuffed it whole into her mouth as she dug in the fridge for some orange juice.

"I'm going outside," she declared.

"What else is new?" Lily replied; for about the past week and a half, the first thing Tabitha had done in the morning was go outside and seemingly watch the sky lighten.

Without a reply, Tabby swigged the OJ from the carton and made her way to the back door. Almeda, who had just come out of her room, picked up a ball and followed her.

Amy eyed Lily's book. "What's this, Lils?" she inquired, picking it up and pulling a face at its cover.

Lily snatched it back, cursing herself for not taking it back to her room. "It's a dark time right now, Ames," she muttered, staring at the book on her lap. "I have to read up, be ready. I don't want another Milly." Her voice was as soft as could be on the last sentence; it was the first time anyone had really brought it up.

"So you go to _Black Magics_?" Amy persisted.

"You don't understand," Lily explained, looking her sandy blonde cousin in the face. "It's to get into the mindset of those who _have_ turned to the Dark Arts, to see what they're all about."

Through the thin back door, they heard the scrape of a chair and the bounce of Almeda's rubber ball. "James! Come play with us!" Tabby's muffled voice called.

"Sure," James answered, and on the other side of the window, Tabby and Almeda took one side, opposing James, who was alone. He tossed the ball, causing them to shriek and dash in opposite directions.

"Oh, no," Amy gasped, though her expression also had laughter in it.

"What?" Alice entered the scene, rumpling her hair oh-so-attractively.

"I think I've figured out why Tabitha likes to sit on the back porch," Amy declared, pointing.

The two witches looked blankly at her.

"James always comes to the back door," she elaborated.

Lily's face drained of colour, and the three dashed to the kitchen window. A disbelieving laugh escaped Lily as they watched the players cavort about, Tabby squealing in a manner appropriate for a six-year-old, like Almeda, but altogether too immature for her age.

"Blimey, she's acting like you did around Frank before he charmed that mistletoe," Lily teased, elbowing Alice.

"Now, now," Alice shot back. "There's no need to be jealous."

"Yeah, Lils, you've got no competition in Tabby. James still likes _youuuuu_," Amy teased, wiggling a finger into Lily's ticklish ribs.

Lily giggled hysterically and leapt away. "I am not _jealous_," she defended, moving to the window in the back door instead of rejoining Amy and Alice in the line of fire. Calm again, she frowned. "It's just going to be so hard to convince her to give up on him."

Tabitha's exuberant face outside was a foil to all three girls watching her from the house, solemnly hoping that she'd give up.

**What's that? I should do the research paper that's due tomorrow, but I didn't do because of NaNoWriMo? And I got a sixty percent on the rough draft, so I really need to bring up my grade? Pssh, you people don't know how I operate.**

**Hope you all had a splendid Thanksgiving, for my American readers. And for others, I hope you had a good Not-Thanksgiving anyway.**


	14. Once In A Blue Moon

**The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street**

**So, yeah. I wrote these all at school, and I want to get them OUT. I still have A LOT of stories to post this year to make my goal. I can **_**so **_**do this.**

**Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter, nor Hannah Montana. Which one of these do you think I'm upset about?**

Chapter 14: Once In A Blue Moon

While Lily read her _Black Magics_ book, James was taking Aderyn home, thinking of someplace he could put her; he'd left her cage at home in England.

Entering through the squeaky back door, James crept to the living room and found himself looking at –

"Moony!" Letting Addie fly up to a shelf, James walked over toward the fireplace to clap Remus Lupin on the back. "Mate, what are you doing here?"

"Didn't Padfoot tell you?" James shook his head. Remus sighed irritably. "Merlin, it's a wonder he even remembers his own name. I decided to come early, so I wrote him, we set up the fireplace, and I just Flooed over here. I was beginning to wonder where everyone was, actually."

"Well, it's good to have you, mate – wait. Did Sirius tell you?"

"Tell me what?" Remus asked, confused.

James hesitated before answering. What if Lily had gone back to sleep? He couldn't just march over there.

"That… Peter… can't come," James hedged.

"Oh. No, he didn't. That's a shame."

James would just let Remus find out later.

"Meanwhile, let's go drag our lump out of bed," Remus continued, clapping his hands together decisively. James followed him down the hall, wondering if he should warn Moony about Sirius' new petrifying fear of Voldemort attacking him in his sleep…

* * *

Once they had woken Sirius up, which took fifteen minutes and the deaths of a few million brain cells (Sirius hadn't let up on bludgeoning them with his stuffed hippogriff until Remus had hexed him), Mr. Potter fixed them all some breakfast, having been awoken by all of the strangled yelling issuing from Sirius' room.

Bacon and eggs were always favourites of the boys, and Mr. Potter chuckled, watching them wolf it down.

"Aah! Aah! My throat! It burns!" Remus howled; evidently his level of tolerance for searing hot foodstuffs wasn't quite as high as the other two, who were scarfing down their bacon completely unperturbed.

"Watch yourself, boys," Mr. Potter warned, turning to wash the bacon pan. "Don't want to kill all of those little hairs in your throat, do you?"

Remus gave him a look of extreme confusion, but Sirius spat out his enormous bite of eggs (so huge that most of it fell onto James' face) and yelled, "THERE'S HAIR IN MY THROAT?"

"And on that note," Remus excused himself, standing up. "Thank you for the meal, Mr. Potter; I am going to utilise your shower."

"Have at it, Remus," Mr. Potter saluted with his spatula.

"Let's go to Lily's," James suggested to Sirius as soon as Remus was gone; Sirius ignored him, too busy trying to discharge his nonexistent hairball to care about anything else.

"Lily?" his dad asked in interest. "You don't mean that girl from Hogwarts who hates you?"

"Yup, Dad," James affirmed, grabbing Sirius by the collar and dashing from the room. "Bye, Dad."

Mr. Potter began to wonder whether he'd ever be anything but bemused this summer.

* * *

Once he was dressed, James checked to see that Remus was still showering, then ducked out the back door, already excited at seeing the look on Remus' face.

Trudging through the backyard, he saw Tabitha, Lily's fifteen-year-old cousin, stand up quickly. "James!" She and little Almeda waved at him, running down the deck to him. "Come play with us!"

"Sure," James agreed. He could afford to play for a few minutes. Almeda's little rubber ball rolled toward him, and he picked it up and chucked it at the two girls. Shrieking, they dove out of the way.

And that wasn't even his Quaffle arm.

They tossed around the ball for about five minutes, but James started to feel impatient. Looking up, he observed two blondes looking out of the kitchen window, and one redhead doing the same from the living room, through the window set into the back door.

What he didn't see, as he climbed up the porch steps to greet Lily, was a fifteen-year-old brunette's face falling, and the subsequent halfhearted way she played thenceforth with Almeda, who didn't notice a thing.

The smell of freshly-brewed coffee entered James' nostrils as he let himself in. Lily stepped back to allow him access.

"Morning, ladies." Amy nodded to him, pouring the coffee into mugs for herself, Alice, and one very tired Cordelia, seemingly appearing out of nowhere at the smell of her favourite beverage.

"Morning," Cordy greeted.

"Hullo," Alice put in.

Lily was yawning widely. Amy bumped her with her him, casually sipping from her mug. "Ow! Hello, James."

"I've got something to show you," James informed her. "Want to come, Alice?"

"Sure," Alice agreed, taking her cup of coffee with her.

"This stuff is GREAT!" she proclaimed as they crossed the yard, waving to Tabby and Almeda. "Why don't we have this stuff at Hogwarts?"

"Because then everyone would act like you," Lily pointed out, confiscating Alice's mug.

"REEEEEEEMUS!" James called in a girlish voice as soon as they entered the kitchen. "Get out here!"

"Remus?" Lily and Alice exclaimed, pleasantly surprised.

"What, Prongs?" Remus rounded the corner from the hall, stopping as soon as he saw the girls.

"Remus!" The two leapt forward, tackling him in a hug. Confused and surprised, he blinked a few times quicker than normal.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"My gran lives next door," Lily explained, smiling widely.

"And I'm with her," Alice chimed in.

Lily was smiling within five seconds of seeing Remus. It had taken James weeks to develop that kind of trust. Suddenly he didn't feel so happy from bringing them to see each other.

"Does this mean that that Quod thingy is soon?" Alice inquired. Sirius entered the kitchen, his hair wet and his shirt off.

"Nah, Moony just came early," he explained, going to the fridge and drinking milk straight from the carton.

"Padfoot, you know that's disgusting?" James lectured.

"You're one to talk, Mr. I-Ate-Twelve-Chocolate-Frogs-In-One-Minute," Sirius retorted.

James turned back to Lily, but she and Alice had moved away, sitting at the table and laughing uproariously at something Remus had said.

Feeling suddenly like he'd rather be alone, James retreated to his room, deciding to owl Peter. He'd pay attention to him.

**Aww, poor Jamesie is unloved. *pats head* Now, now, you're not **_**that**_** important.**

**Meanwhile, I ought to be doing my science project, but I'm lazy. I did finish my research paper. I wonder if I could get a prize for Worst Paper in the History of the Written Word.**

**Also, I am grounded. I can't stay on the computer past nine. It is highly suckish. So I'll try to update as often as I can, but that's usually my computer time, so I'll have to work around that.**


	15. Buckle Down Brownie

**The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street**

**BLEHHHH. I have to write A LOT, but I also need to do my science projeeeect. Ennh.**

**Disclaimer: STUPID SCIENCE PROJECT**

Chapter 15: Buckle Down Brownie

"Binns' summer homework really isn't all it's cracked up to be," Lily declared on Saturday. Alice turned to her with a "duh" look on her face.

"Which, as it's cracked up to be a terrible waste of time, is really saying nothing," she grumbled. "Of course, Muggle Studies is a real snoozefest too."

They had been sequestered in their room since Thursday, the brownies that James had made keeping them sane. Gran had taken to bringing their meals to them, and James had gotten so worried that the cousins actually had to physically force him out when he tried to visit. (They probably would have been less stringent, had Lily not threatened to grievously injure anyone who disturbed her and Alice.) The two had decided that if they didn't do their homework now, they never would; Remus' arrival had reminded them of their impending N.E.W.T.-level classes.

Shutting her book with a resounding _thud!_ Lily leaned back in her chair and stretched.

"History of Magic: done," she declared. "Potions last, and then I'm finished."

Alice stuck her tongue out at her. "I've got Charms and Arithmancy."

There was a tap at the window. Lily and Alice looked up to see James' owl, Aderyn, a letter clutched in her beak.

"Well, that boy's _really_ gotten desperate," Alice remarked as Lily went to open the window. Aderyn fluttered in and settled atop the dresser once Lily had taken the letter.

Prying it open, she pulled out a hastily folded half-sheet of parchment.

_Lily,_

_Are you all right? I've tried to see you a few times now, but your family keeps kicking me out. I'm starting to get a little worried about you and Alice. Tabitha did give me a few cookies for my trouble, though, so that was nice._

_Anyway, as long as you're reading this, I might as well apologise for being a prick about you and Remus. We were just having so much fun together – at least I was – and I forgot that you guys are close. In fact, in the back of my mind, I'm somewhat afraid that that's why you're not talking to me._

_Well, I sound like a blithering idiot now, so – bye._

_James_

Lily hadn't even noticed that James was acting weird about her hanging out with Remus. Honestly, she had been paying more attention to… well, Remus. It was almost funny that James thought she wasn't talking to him on principle.

Alice turned her chair around and sat on it backward, facing Lily on the bed.

"Listen, we need to talk."

Lily folded up the letter. "What about?"

Alice sighed. "Okay. I've been talking with your cousins lately, and we've all come to the same conclusion. You know how James tended to follow you around and stuff at Hogwarts?"

"As it went on for five and a half years, yes."

"Well, he hasn't stopped doing that. And honestly, you're welcoming it."

"Excuse me?" Lily did her best not to be offended. "I do not – "

"You may not know you're doing it, but you are," Alice interrupted. "It's actually kind of funny to watch you two when you're together."

"But he doesn't still – "

"Yes he does, Lily, don't act blind," Alice cut in again impatiently. "Honestly, he's changing for you. Didn't you notice he's not nearly as annoying anymore?"

"That's because his mum died," Lily spat out in a rush, determined not to be interrupted again.

Alice sat next to Lily on the bed. "Listen. Just – when we're done with our work, we'll be able to hang out with him again. Then see what you think."

Lily went back to her desk. "Fine," she agreed, grabbing the last brownie from the plate. "But I'm not going to like it."

**UGHHHH. I keep getting distracted by August Rush! (Best movie score ever, btdubs.)**


	16. Yardwork

**The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street**

**No! I have to leave soon! Stupid orchestra.**

…**Aah, I can type this up real fast.**

**Disclaimer: I **_**wish**_** J. K. Rowling played my instrument.**

Chapter 16: Yardwork

Tuesday, as usual, was chores day, and the girls were woken up even earlier than most Tuesdays.

Cordy, Amy, and Geri were assigned to the attic; Diana and Almeda got the bedrooms; Aunt Linnea, Fern and Ivy got various other tasks on the main level; Tabby was put in charge of Penelope and Julianne; and Lily and Alice got the yard.

When Alice almost cut off one of her toes with the pruning shears, it was left to just Lily.

After watching her try to drag the heavy lawn mower out of the garage for a minute or two, Alice went back inside, muttering something about dusting the flowers.

Lily extricated the lawn mower from the mess of a garage with a huge _creeeeeeeak!_

"Phew." She wiped her brow and rolled the machine to the edge of the grass. She yanked on the cord. It snapped back, making an intermittent puttering sound.

She tried again. It didn't start.

Lily kicked the engine, and the resemblance to her father was uncanny as she hopped around on one foot in pain. Her hobbling foot caught onto a rock, and she fell down swearing.

"Damn bloody mower…" She was still muttering when James answered the door a minute later. Seeing him immediately brought to Lily's mind the deal she and Alice had made, as well as how mad she must look, and she immediately calmed down.

"Um…" James was looking down on her in amusement. "Um, would you come out and… help me?"

"Help you?" James' eyes were a mixture of gleeful and astonished behind his glasses. "Lily Evans is asking me for help. Mates!" he yelled over his shoulder. "Lily's asking me to help her!"

From two different directions, Sirius' and Remus' heads appeared. "What?"

"'Kay, bye," Lily called, pulling James outside and shutting the door resoundingly.

"I can't get the mower to work," she complained, pointing at the devil machine.

"The what?"

Lily explained how it was supposed to work.

James looked uneasy. "Er, are you sure you don't want Sirius to do it? He's stronger – "

"No, you do it," Lily laughed.

"All right," James agreed dubiously. He cracked his knuckles, reached down, and yanked the cord amazingly fast. The mower roared to life.

With a jubilous laugh, Lily hugged James gratefully. "Here, let me – " she tried to take the handle from him.

"No, no, I'll do it." Lily could practically see the testosterone begin to flow. "You go rest."

With only Lily's recent two-minute explanation of a lawn mower in his mind, James took off. "But I haven't even done anything…" Lily protested, but he was already too far away to notice. Standing around useless, Lily decided to take his advice and rest.

She went inside and got herself a glass of lemonade and took a seat on the porch swing, pulling her hair up lazily. Watching James do her work for her was very relaxing, going from a frenetic first-timer to a focused, detailed worker over time.

And then he took his shirt off.

"Damn, he's smokin'," a voice said behind her.

Lily jumped, slopping lemonade into her lap. "Cordy!" she shrieked and turned to glare at her oldest cousin through the screen; Cordelia was on the other side of the open window, smirking.

Lily leapt up from her seat and dashed inside. Cordy followed her to her room, where Lily was changing her shorts.

"You should have seen yourself," Cordy snickered. Lily glared at her. "You were _drooling_."

"I was not!" Lily defended childishly. "And you made me spill my lemonade!" She threw her soiled shorts on top of her and Alice's steadily growing pile of dirty clothes.

"Don't change the subject just because you're a bad liar, dearie," Cordy singsonged as Lily stomped back outside.

"Get back to work!" Lily yelled irritably, punctuating the command by shutting the front door loudly.

Turning around, she almost shrieked again, so close to James' sweaty chest that she felt like she was in a smutty romance novel.

"Oh, sorry," James apologised, stepping back a bit from the shaken girl.

"It's fine," Lily said to the floor, touching his arm to step around him. She traipsed down the front steps, trying to keep her cool. She realised that he was following her. "I'm sorry, did you need something?"

"I was just wondering if I was doing a good job," James muttered, blushing himself. It made Lily flush yet again. "And you left, so…"

"No, you're doing great," Lily assured him. Did he realise how hard it was to skip over that broad chest to look him in the face? "If you want to stop, I'll take over," she offered.

"Nah, I like it," James declined. The awkward moment got to be too much, and Lily continued on her way to the garage, picking up the pruning shears that Alice had almost killed herself with.

With the hum of the mower in the background once more and her back to the lawn (and therefore shirtless James), Lily was able to focus quite easily, trimming each of the bushes with her precise eye. Once she started sweating, she pulled off her tee shirt, leaving only her tank top; the cool was relieving.

She was so intent on her task that she didn't notice the drone of the lawn mower stop.

"What do I do now?" James put his hands on Lily's shoulders; he knew that it was the only way to get her attention when she was concentrating.

"That's pretty much it, I think," Lily said, quickly chopping off another sprig from a bush so she wouldn't have to look at him and embarrass herself again. "You can go home now. Thank you."

Awkwardly, James tried to wave goodbye, but Lily was intent on her work once more.

_Close one_, Lily thought once he'd gone back into his own house. _I was that close to losing my cool._

She looked around the yard, the mower lying forlornly where James had left it. Now all that was left to do (by herself, she remembered like an idiot) was weed the garden, water the flowers, tend the vegetables, clean the gutters, wash the windows, sweep the porch, pick the fruit from the trees in the backyard, and install the lawn sprinklers.

Eh, she'd just charm all the windows on that side of the Potters' house to make her progress undetectable.

**Whew. Okay. Had to leave in the middle of that one; sorry. Luckily, I just had to type it up, not actually write it on the fly. And now I am grounded, so good night, and I'll post more tomorrow.**


	17. Daddy O

**The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street**

**I'm BAAAAAAACK!**

**I finished my goal of 365 fics last year, in case you were curious. But then, after all that writing, I decided to give myself a break, so thank you for being patient with me.**

**Disclaimer: I have no school for a day. J. K. Rowling never has to set foot in a school again.**

Chapter 17: Daddy-O

On the evening of August first, Lily packed a book into her magically enhanced pocket and left for the Potters' house. They would be going over plans for the next day, so she'd been invited to dinner.

"Mmm, smells delicious," she proclaimed, walking through the back door and turning into the kitchen.

"Oh, hello," an older man greeted her, waving with a spatula.

Lily could've smacked herself. It had been almost a month since she'd been right next door, and she'd never thought to introduce herself to Mr. Potter. (Of course, James hadn't either.)

"Hi!" she blurted out, smiling automatically. He seemed quite nice. "Erm, what are you making?"

"Pancakes," Mr. Potter replied, tilting the skillet so she could see it. "I know the boys love their breakfast-for-dinner night, and I hoped you'd like it as well."

"Oh, pancakes are _perfect_," Lily gushed. "Terrific."

"Oh, er - " Mr. Potter held out his hand, awkwardly twisting to flip a pancake. "You must be Lily, then. Heard an awful lot about you, since all the way back in first year."

Lily felt herself colour a bit, but she shook his hand warmly. "Yeah, that's me. I dread to think."

"Oh, no," Mr. Potter assured her. "My late wife and I, we had to sit through 'Oh, Evans is so smart' and 'Oh, Evans is so - '"

"Dad!" James cut him off indignantly, suddenly in the doorway behind Lily. She and Mr. Potter both laughed. "Not funny," James sulked, just as Remus dashed between them, followed by something large and furry, which knocked right into the back of Lily's legs and sent her flying.

* * *

"Damn, my wand rolled under the bed," Sirius grumbled.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Come on, Lily's here, and I smell breakfast," he wheedled as Sirius strained to get his arm further beneath the bed.

"No matter." Sirius stood back up, ignoring Remus' statement completely. "Watch the door." He turned into his dog form and began pawing for the wand under the bed.

Remus rolled his eyes. He pointed his wand at the bed and said "_Accio_" almost resignedly. Sirius' wand flew out to him, and he caught it, sprinting out the door before Sirius could catch him.

He thought of saying "Excuse me" as he darted past James and Lily, but that would waste breath. Sirius followed full-pelt, knocking Lily's legs out from under her.

* * *

"Lily!" James yelped, catching her unceremoniously just before her head cracked on the ground. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Lily confirmed, though she was still a little shaken from the jerk of the fall. As soon as James was sure she was all right, he rounded on the dog, which had stopped behind Mr. Potter's legs. "Padfoot! You could have hurt her! What were you thinking?"

"Well, he was being slow!" Remus defended, pointing Sirius' wand at the dog.

"Mr. Potter," Lily called under the boys' arguing. He turned to her inquiringly. "There's a dog in your house."

"Er, boys," Mr. Potter interjected. "I don't seem to be the only one who's noticed something amiss here." He gestured to the dog, whose eyes widened. James and Remus both stopped abruptly.

"Er, would you mind - " James started to say to the dog, who suddenly turned into Sirius. "Or you could do it here, that works too."

Lily blinked. The boys all seemed to be holding their breath. Well, not Mr. Potter. He was whistling merrily, flipping a pancake.

She sniffed once. "All right then," she remarked, taking a seat at the counter with no fanfare. James' dad slid a plate of piping hot cakes toward her, and she took a fork and stabbed the top of the pile, awash in the silence of the boys. It was most uncharacteristic.

"I take it you're unregistered, then?" she inquired, swallowing her bite of pancake and taking another.

James, Sirius, and Remus all stared at her.

"What?"

* * *

They explained the reasoning behind and process of teaching themselves to be Animagi over breakfast-for-dinner. Well, Remus not so much, but Lily had already figured that one out a long time ago.

"My question is this," Lily began once all the explanations were over. "How'd you come to find out, Mr. Potter?"

"Please, call me Nathaniel," he corrected her. "And the boys told me, of course. I wish old Peter was here; he'd've brought the Dungbombs to throw on the Missoula team's heads."

"Dad's practically a Marauder himself," James informed Lily. "Inventor of the Dungbomb, Alberic Grunnion, he was your great-great-great-grandfather, yeah?"

"You know it," Sirius crowed, and he and Remus high-fived flamboyantly.

"Unbelievable," Lily shook her head, laughing. "Now I finally see where he gets it."

"Oi!" Mr. Potter cried, but his eyes were twinkling.

"So you just… went and told him?" Lily reverted to her previous topic.

"Oh, yeah," James admitted. "Him and Mum. Dad's an Auror, but he'd never give us away, and Mum was a Healer. Right nice when we needed a quick fix over the summer if Moony mauled us."

Lily pulled a face involuntarily.

Remus leaned over the table and put his hand atop hers. "Lily," he breathed. "You have to know that I would never hurt them. Not without knowing it. They've really helped me since they made the change, and even though I tell myself that I'd rather have them safe, deep down inside I know that I'm a truly selfish person, that I want them out there with me, keeping me… better. You have to understand that, Lily."

"What, you think I'm going to turn you in?" Lily retorted. "That's horrible, Remus, and you know it. I happen to know that you're the best person in Hogwarts, that you'd never do anything to hurt anyone, and that you have the most loyal friends in the world. Like I'm going to go off an ruin all that? Fat chance."

And that was settled.

* * *

Before Lily left, they established that they would depart at half past five in the morning. With a little wave, Lily closed the back door, thanking Mr. Potter once again for allowing her to come.

"You liiiiiike her," Remus sniggered, catching James at the back window, watching Lily the whole way back to her house.

"You loooooove her," Sirius modified.

"Yeah," James exhaled heavily. "What can you do?"

**And I am so grateful that I made a disgustingly comprehensive bio of the Potter family, like, years ago. I haven't needed it till now. But MAN, was I good.**


	18. The Game

**The Strange Kids on Kennedy Street**

**Inserting new chapter here! Ignoring the fact that I'm in sociology and supposed to be working! This is why I should never be set loose in a computer lab.**

**Disclaimer: Megan, who sits next to me in soc, is trying to attack me now for the title.**

Chapter 18: [I Lost] The Game

In order to make sure everyone safely Apparated out, the Potters, Sirius, Remus, and Lily made the short trip to Increment Alley early in the morning. Traffic was somewhat sketchy; all those wizards suddenly driving cars, bleary-eyed, made for quite an interesting morning commute.

They Side-Along Apparated out of the alley in a group of twenty, immediately materialising in a field some forty miles away with enough force to knock Lily off her feet. James helped her up, and they looked up at the pitch.

It looked quite like a Quidditch pitch, but there was only one long post at either end of the field, supporting a large black pot.

"There's a solution in those pots," Sirius explained upon seeing Lily's furrowed brow. "This Quaffle, it's charmed to explode at certain intervals, so it's not really a Quaffle at all, it's a Quod."

"So the pots…" Lily completed the word.

"The potion stops the ball from exploding in someone's face," Mr. Potter jumped in. "Which, if it does, it doesn't hurt them, but it does get them out of the match."

"That's why there are eleven players a side in Quodpot, so that they have members to spare," Remus concluded. "Once the Quod is in the potion-filled pot, the scoring team gets a point, and a new Quod is brought out."

"Okay, but I do have one question," Lily bounced back to the boys.

"Shoot," James replied.

"Why didn't you tell me all this earlier?"

James grinned down at Lily, who smiled back cheekily.

* * *

The party of five took their seats in the stands. Lily peered down at the two teams on the ground, almost ready for takeoff; it was weird to see that many people on a pitch.

"Indianapolis is in turquoise, Missoula in orange," James explained. Before he could say anything else, though, the teams took off into the air, and James, Sirius, and Remus were cheering.

On Lily's other side, Mr. Potter grinned at his boys, rolling his eyes. "They get so worked up," he scoffed.

"It's okay, Mr. Potter," Lily promised. "You can get into it too. I won't mind." Mr. Potter grinned guiltily.

"All right, but don't say I didn't warn you," he cautioned, opening his jacket and revealing a mass of turquoise clothing.

"Merlin, you could've warned me you were going to blind me!" Lily joked, but then a loud cheer went up their end of the stands, and James, roaring with glee at the goal that had just been made, wrapped his arms around Lily and lifted her, squealing, from her place.

As though suddenly realising what he'd done, James set her down hurriedly. Lily straightened her jacket, forcing herself to pay more attention to the match.

* * *

"Forty to twenty-six!" Sirius rejoiced, running down the length of Increment Alley and back to his friends, waving a turquoise pennant.

"Indianapolis is the man!" Remus pumped his fist in the air, knocking into James in his excitement. Lily felt dead on her feet, the match having drained her of adrenaline. Her pace slowed, not much, but enough to let everyone else pull ahead of her. James looked quizzically behind at her.

"I'm fine," Lily waved him off. "I'll meet you at the car."

"Now, now, I'm not having that," James chided her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pushing her forward. His arm was warm and felt safe. Lily turned into him a bit.

A few moments of silence went by, and then James said, "I'm glad you came with us."

"I'm glad I came," she replied.

"Would you… would you like to come back here? Sometime later this week? With me?"

Lily's cheeks flushed. Her immediate response was to say no, but that was just a reflex from years of James asking her out so arrogantly. This… was different. He seemed really nervous this time, as though he actually feared a negative answer. Lily realised that she'd been silent for about thirty seconds now.

"I – "

A piercing scream rent the air before them, the gates to the Muggle world within sight. It wasn't a scream of surprise, something scaring the living daylights out of someone else. It was a scream of pure terror, and only one thing Lily could think of could produce that kind of a noise.

"Come on," she ordered James, looking about frantically now for Sirius, Remus, and Mr. Potter, feeling fully awake. "It's Voldemort."


End file.
